This invention is related to educational and/or recreational learning apparatus and methods of use for these educational and/or recreational learning devices. More particularly this invention is related to educational and/or recreational learning apparatus to provide advancement in learning by providing reinforcement for correct responses particularly for children with learning disabilities of varying degrees.
Various learning and recreational devices that employ covered compartments or chambers are known in the art. These devices include many different structural arrangements to stimulate learning in a recreational manner. Generally, the objective is to teach and/or provide a stimulus to test a skill or knowledge while generating a response.
For example, the patent to Reeder et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,652) describes the front facade of a post office. Similar to the concept of post office boxes, the device includes an array of doors, each with a number and an associated internal compartment. The internal compartments are openly accessible from the rear of the facade. It is noteworthy that the doors are made from a transparent material so that the contents of each internal compartment are also readily visible from the front of the facade when each door is closed.
The patent to Coyne et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,598) discloses a toy mailbox. The front of the mailbox has a mail slot as well as an array of doors with numbers and keyholes. Each door has an associated internal compartment. The rear of the mailbox may be opened to reveal the backs of each internal compartment. The rear of each internal compartment has the same number as the related door. The rear of each internal compartment has a unique slot fitted to receive a comparably sized block. In general, the inside of each internal compartment is only designed to be viewed from the front of the mailbox when the related door is open.
The Nelson patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,309) teaches a memory game with many doors. The opaque doors may be opened to reveal symbols hidden behind. The object is to match pairs of symbols behind the doors by opening two doors at a time.
While, these prior devices may be entertaining for children in general, they are wholly unsatisfactory for use as an educational or testing tool, particularly with respect to children with learning or cognitive disabilities or impairments. For this smaller group of children, where the capacity for abstract thought or problem solving is impaired, it is widely recognized that simpler and more concrete methods are required. Thus, where testing or educational devices provide too much sensory stimulus, the device may be inappropriate to serve as a tool for learning impaired children. Moreover, where devices do not provide mechanism for adjusting the levels of sensory stimulus, the device may only have a limited application.
An objective of this invention is to provide an apparatus for educational and/or recreational learning.
A further objective is to provide an apparatus more suited for children with disabled or impaired learning abilities.
Another objective of this invention is to provide an educational apparatus to provide a stimulus or query to test skill and knowledge, generate a response to the stimulus or query, and reward correct responses to reinforce learning.
A still further objective is to provide such a dynamic apparatus that may be used with children of varying levels of ability.
Additional objectives will be apparent from the description of the invention that follows.
To accomplish these objectives, the following invention involves an educational and/or recreational apparatus with at least one housing that contains one or more compartments. Each compartment has a first opening on a first surface of the housing. At the first opening associated with each compartment, there are removable covers or doors.
The removable cover at each compartment may be placed at each first opening to selectively expose and conceal the interior of the associated compartment. To this end, each removable cover may have a hinge to attach the removable cover to the first surface of the housing in close proximity to a corresponding first opening. Additionally, each removable cover may have a one latch to secure the removable cover to the first surface to conceal a corresponding first opening.
The apparatus further has at least one display device such as a shelf or a transparent member to accept a display member. Each display device is associated with each first opening or the cover of the first opening. In general, the display device is used to vary viewable information associated with the first opening. Typically, the display member will contain educational and/or recreational information to provide the stimulus or query and is at least visible when the associated removable cover is concealing the associated first opening.
Utilizing these features, a user may place a gift or reward object within selected compartments and the removable covering are placed to conceal the gift or reward object within the compartment. A person participating in the recreational or educational activity upon accurately solving a query may remove the covering to access the gift or object.
In one embodiment, each compartment of the educational and/or recreational apparatus may have a second opening placed on a surface of the compartment opposite the first opening. The second opening may be used to insert and remove gift or reward objects without removing the cover of first opening.
Preferably, the educational and/or recreational apparatus may be formed of multiple housings where each housing has modular or compatible surfaces. The surfaces allow the housings to be aligned with the sides of other housings such that each first surface of each housing are contiguous. Thus, the first surface of each of the multiple housings are united to form a uniform first surface.